I think everybody needs to listen to

this episode if they want to start 2026

properly. If there's one thing I've

learned that's really stayed with me

this year, it's from speaking to some of

the world's leading minds about our

brain, which might just be the most

powerful asset that we all have. You

know, if you listen to the Diary of a

SEO, you're probably listening because

you're trying to get something, whether

it's information, inspiration, maybe

entertainment, all of which because

you're striving towards some kind of

goal. And it's dawned on me this year

because I've interviewed so many

incredible neuroscientists that this all

starts with having a healthy brain.

Because all of our thoughts, our

feelings, our relationships, our

memories, our chance of having a future

start in the brain. So, in this special

Christmas episode, we're going to focus

on the brain. How you can have the most

fundamentally healthy brain so you can

live the most fundamentally meaningful

life. I've been through all the episodes

where we've talked about the brain and

I've looked at the moments that you

shared and replayed the most. and the

moments that added the most value to

your life. And I've put all of them into

this episode today.

>> Do you remember the first time you saw a

human brain?

>> I do.

>> Did it change how you think about your

own brain?

>> It changed my life because I was like, I

want to study that. That is the coolest

thing that I've ever seen in my whole

life. It was life-changing.

>> I say that because we, you know, at the

start of this conversation, we said that

most of us don't appreciate our brain. A

lot of people don't even realize it's

there. But the minute I had a brain scan

one day, and that brain scan

>> really changed my life because seeing my

own brain for the first time,

>> it was the push that I needed

>> to start caring more about how my

decisions and behaviors are impacting

it. So, let's talk about how I can make

that ball of tofu in my head, super

healthy, big, fat, and fluffy. You you

talked about exercise earlier on, but we

didn't really dig dig into exactly what

you mean by exercise cuz exercise, I

think, is multifaceted in its

definition. What kind of exercise should

I be doing to make my ball of tofu in my

head great?

>> Yeah.

>> Optimal.

>> Mhm. Well, all the research shows that

the best kind of exercise that you can

do is anything that gives you aerobic

activity that is getting your heart rate

up. So that that goes for, you know,

power walking will get your heart rate

up. So soccer, so many different things.

Name your activity. So many people want

to say, "Oh, my favorite activity, will

that work?" And I always just say, "Is

it is your heart rate up when you're

doing it?" If the answer is yes, then

yeah, that that works great. We know

that that level of aerobic activity is

critical because that's going to release

that growth factor maximally to get into

your hippocampus. Uh that will grow

those new brain cells. how much?

>> So, um I have an answer to that. So, um

we did two different experiments in my

lab. One in um low fit people, people

that are really not exercising very much

at all, less than 30 minutes um um in

the last three three weeks you you've uh

moved your body. And um we asked what

could we see any behavioral improvement

in your memory function from your

hippocampus or your uh ability to shift

and focus attention if we ask you to

move your body in an aerobic way for two

to three times a week and we

collaborated with a spin class. So

clearly very aerobic. And what we found

was in those people that did

successfully do two to three times a

week of 45minute aerobic activity, their

mood got significantly better, their

memory function got better, and their

ability to shift and focus attention got

significantly better. So that gives a

little bit of a guideline for low fit

people. Two to three times a week can

start to give you some of those some of

those cognitive changes. But you don't

look low fit. So let me let me answer

the question you're about to ask me with

like what about me? I I exercise pretty

regularly and um how much how much do I

need? So to answer that question, we

went to another spin studio and we said

look, we're going to give you free

classes. You could exercise as much as

you want in this in this um at this

studio and uh um go up to seven times a

week. And the control was just stay the

same. You know, you they were they were

working out twice a week at at the

studio

>> and Troll was the other group that what

you were testing them against.

>> Yes. Exactly.

>> And so what we found was

basically every drop of sweat counted.

The more you exercise, the more change

in your brain. We noted both your

hippocample function, prefrontal

function, and mood. if you you were

already getting benefit, you know,

you're already going twice a week, but

the more you did, the more brain changes

you got. So that that doesn't give the

formula that I would like, but we were

heading in that direction, which is part

of one of the questions that I want to

answer. But I love to leave people with

the idea that every drop of sweat counts

for building your brain into the big fat

fluffy brain that you really want.

And then in the real world, again,

making it super um real for people.

>> Yeah.

>> How how does that change how I show up?

>> Yeah. if you allow it to should have a

beautiful effect on your mindset. Um

that your mindset around um

how often should I take wake up and 30

minutes early and do that walk before I

start my day or uh accept the the

invitation to go uh walk the dog with

with a neighbor. Um it's not an

obligation. It is something that you're

doing for yourself. It is going to have

direct benefits on that ball of tofu, as

you call it, in your head. It's going to

make it work better. And and I mean, I

think the most immediate thing that I

benefit from every single day is the

mood boost that you get from that

serotonin, dopamine, nor adrenaline that

gets released every time you move your

body.

>> I always think that because obviously I

do a lot of podcasting and it's I'm

super reliant on my brain being attached

to my mouth and sometimes I notice that

it's not. You know what I mean? like

sometimes I'm notic

from from your and also I speak on stage

sometimes. So I've often asked myself

cuz I saw Tony Robbins

>> the speaker one day on a trampoline

before he goes up on stage.

>> I ask myself okay should I be doing a

workout in my green room before I go up

on stage for a big talk or presentation?

>> You think I should?

>> Oh yeah absolutely. What's the basis of

that in science and neuroscience?

>> Uh it's the basis is that immediate

effect. So there's three key effects

that we know happen every time you move

your body. First one is mood. You're

going to get your dopamine, your

serotonin up. Um second is focus and

attention. So so a single workout isn't

going to make more synapses in your

prefrontal cortex, but the prefrontal

cortex uses dopamine. And so um it's

clear that even a single workout can

make your prefrontal cortex work better

in terms of focus and attention. Also

very important anytime you're speaking.

And the third is reaction time. Your

reaction time, you know, motor your your

your working your motor cortex when you

move your body. And your response and

reaction time is significantly shorter

after a even a single workout compared

to if you just don't work out and sit

sit um alone. So great great things to

do. A great thing to do before you you

stand up and speak.

>> What about coffee?

>> I I I'm trying to figure out if coffee

is good for my brain, bad for my brain.

I've had a couple of mixed messages

around the impact it might be having.

>> Yeah. You know, caffeine is a stimulant

and uh people respond to that kind of

stimulant uh in different ways. Over

stimulation with caffeine is is not good

for your be able your ability to put

words together. You know, this is where

I turn to a a main theme in in my book

healthy brain happy life with this which

is self-experimentation

for you. How what can you titrate your

coffee to see what level of coffee is

best for whatever your podcast or you're

giving a talk? The other thing that can

work similarly to coffee that that I've

started uh and that I do every morning

is um hot cold contrast showers because

that cold that you shower on yourself

after the heat um stimulates adrenaline

in you. a natural adrenaline. It wakes

you up and okay, it was painful the

first kind of few times I tried it, but

then you get addicted to it and I have

forgotten to do it and gotten back in

the shower just to douse myself with

cold water because I feel better when I

do that for for you know first thing in

the morning. So, lots of different

things that one can explore with. Okay,

on the other side of the coin then, what

are some of the central behaviors that

people do that destroy their brain?

>> Well, sedentary behavior is one of them.

Um, not getting enough sleep is

critical. We haven't talked about sleep

yet. Sleep is so important for normal

functioning of the brain. I like to

scare my students by saying that um you

know in torture situations if you

deprive a person of sleep for too long

they literally die. They they they die.

You cannot function if you are deprived

of sleep for too many hours in a row.

It's that critical. Yet we don't we we

happily, you know, watch too much

Netflix at night and and and and get

only 5 hours of sleep when we could have

had eight. So um what's happening

exactly? Why is it so important? Well,

there's um there's so many different

things. I'm gonna I'm gonna say two. One

is that we know that in regular um um

healthy sleep, there is activity in the

hippocampus that helps you strengthen

the memories that you have formed in

that previous day. It's called

consolidation and it's so important. If

you shorten that, if you don't get

enough, you are not consolidating your

normal everyday memories. And second, it

is uh the time during sleep when all the

metabolites, all that garbage that your

brain is producing because all

biological cells produce garbage, it

gets kind of um cleaned up um through

the cerebral spinal fluid that that is

flowing through your brain. And if you

do not get enough sleep, you build up

garbage metabolites in your brain. It's

like you have a gunky brain. And do you

feel like I feel like I have gunk in my

brain when I don't sleep enough. That is

exactly what is what is happening.

>> Well, when you think about um things

that we consume, you know, like food and

drink and alcohol and all these kinds of

things, is there is there anything that

if I'm trying to have an optimal brain,

I should be

>> Yeah.

>> having or not having?

>> Yeah. Well, so um I think the most

evidence is around the benefit of the

Mediterranean diet which is basically

all healthy uh um kind of organic not

organic but nonprocessed is the word I

was trying to think of things to eat

that are very very colorful. There is so

much evidence about how good that is

generally for the brain that that is my

go-to. Like what should I eat? Well, is

it on the Mediterranean diet? If it is,

then go ahead. If it's too processed,

>> only do it just a little bit.

>> Is it true that if we have less friends,

if we have less strong relationships, if

we're lonely,

>> then our brain will shrink and is more

prone to dementia and Alzheimer's and

things like that. Yes, we are social

creatures and um there are uh really

powerful studies that have shown the

correlation between the number of social

connections that we have including just

saying hello to the barista at

Starbucks. It's not a close friendship

that you develop over 30 years. It's

it's just how many people you interact

with and greet and longevity. The more

people you are regularly interacting

with, the longer you are living overall

longevity. But if you go into brain

health, absolutely it's also very very

healthy for you. It also brings

happiness. So uh friend and colleague of

mine um Robert Wallinger uh studied um

what makes people happy. The study

started in the 20s, the 1920s and in

Harvard. And after all of those many

many many decades, the answer is what

brings happiness is the strength of your

social connections. So it makes you

happier. It makes you live longer and

and uh yes, loneliness on the on the um

flip side causes stress uh long-term

stress that that damages the brain and

uh yeah, in the long term can can make

it smaller and uh less healthy.

>> Here's the fifth most replayed moment.

When I asked you before this

conversation started rolling what you're

really excited about at the moment, your

response to me was there was a few

things, but one of them which lit up

your face was creatine.

>> Yes. And it's funny because

>> it lit up your face again.

>> Yeah. It's it's funny because creatine

has been around for I mean ever for

decades and it's always been in my mind

it was like one of those gym bro things.

I'm like I don't need to be swole.

>> Yeah.

>> I don't need creatine get get swole. And

you know this is this was the thought

for for many many years. And then over

the last five years or so,

the effects of creatine on the brain

started to really get my interest.

Anything that affects the brain, I

really become interested in. And so

that's kind of what did get me the most

excited about about creatine. But also,

I started doing a lot of resistance

training. And so I was like, "Okay, here

I am now. I'm like one of those gym

guys. I'm doing I'm doing the barbells.

I'm doing the, you know, the squats and

the deadlifts and all that and so, so

why not give myself some of the

creatine? Well, what is creatine, right?

Why is it important? You talked about

earlier, you know, why doesn't our body

just make more of these things that are

so beneficial? We do make creatine. We

make about, I don't know, our liver

makes about 1 to three grams a day of

creatine. And our brain also makes

creatine and those are the two organs

that make it. Creatine gets consumed by

other tissues like the muscle is

probably the one that's the greediest

because creatine is stored as

phosphocreatine but it's used to make

energy essentially. So it can increase

muscle mass, it can increase muscle

strength in combination with resistance

training because you're able to

regenerate and make energy faster. So,

for example, I became interested in it

after reading studies where people that

supplemented with creatine that were

engaged in resistance training were able

to gain more lean body mass. They were

able to gain more strength. It was

increasing their training volume. So,

you can do one to two more reps, right,

of of whatever exercise you're doing.

And it seems to decrease the recovery

time between those those sets as well.

So, you're able to increase your

training volume. Well, anything that's

going to in increase your training

volume is going to then have the

downstream effect of, you know,

increasing the adaptations like

increased muscle mass or increased

muscle strength. I started supplementing

with creatine about a year ago and I

started supplementing with it for that

reason, for the my training and I was

doing about five grams a day because

that was really what was shown to to be

beneficial for muscle health in

combination with resistance training.

And it's important for people to realize

that supplementing with creatine by

itself, without any type of resistance

training, isn't going to grow your

muscle. It's not going to make you

stronger. You have to put in the effort

because what creatine is doing, it's

helping you make the energy quicker,

right? And that and then being able to

make that energy quicker means that

you're able to then do that exercise

better, um, harder, more of it, right?

So, um, it's sort of sup supercharging

your exercise routine.

I had already been aware of the effects

on the brain. I thought maybe the five

grams a day would do that. So what are

the effects on the brain? Well, your

brain also consumes a lot of energy, you

know, needs a lot of energy. So it does

make its own creatine. But it turns out

if you can if you can give your brain

more of that creatine particularly under

a period of anything that's causing

stress. So let's say lack of sleep or

let's say emotional psychological stress

or in my case high cognitive load where

you're just every day learning concepts,

complex things. you're trying to

remember them. You're putting ideas

together and coming up with new

hypotheses and you know, you're just

you're just you're studying a lot and

it's very cognitively demanding and it's

it's a type of stress on your brain.

That's like my life, right? Um under

this condition of stress, depression is

another one that's a stress on your

brain or neurodeenerative disease,

that's a stress on your brain. So any

kind of stressful condition,

that's where creatine shines in the

brain. I would argue that um all of us

who who has the perfect amount of sleep

never has stress nobody, right? There's

always some sort of stress in the

background. So, um that's when I was

like, okay, so if you're the perfect

person, you have no stress, you get the

perfect amount of sleep every night,

your brain makes enough creatine to kind

of do what it needs to do. I know that

I'm constantly under stress. So, um I'm

like, okay, well, I think I need a

boost. And this is where a lot of very

interesting studies have come out of

many different labs. Um, some out of

Germany that looked at the dose of

creatine and how it increases creatine

levels in the brain. And this is why I

now supplement with 10 grams a day. So

the study out of Germany

found that five grams a day of creatine,

if you're supplementing with five grams

a day, your muscles are greedily

consuming it. Particularly if you're

working out, they want it. They want it.

after about five grams a day, especially

over a few months, like you're you're

saturating your muscle and that's

enough, right? Anything above that kind

of spills over to the brain. And so they

what this German study found was that 10

grams of creatine increased creatine

levels in several different regions of

the brain. And that was probably the

most exciting, you know, I would say

evidence that supplementing higher than

five grams a day was actually doing

something in terms of getting creatine

into the brain.

There have now been a variety of studies

that have looked at different outcomes,

right? So, if you supplement with 10

grams of creatine or even go higher than

that, like 20 grams of creatine, how

does that affect cognitive function,

right? And so, um some of these studies

have been been done by uh Dr. Darren

Kandow. He's um at the University of

Regina in Canada and it's looked they've

looked at things like sleep deprivation

and it's been found that if you take

someone and you sleep deprive them for

21 hours and give them about 25 to 30

grams of creatine, it completely negates

the cognitive deficits of sleep

deprivation. Actually, not only does it

negate the cognitive deficits of sleep

deprivation, it makes people function

better than if they were well-rested.

That's where I was like, wait a minute,

there's many times when I'm traveling,

I'm jet-lagged. Uh lots of times when

I'm sleepd deprived and I have to be

doing a podcast or a presentation,

whatever. And in those situations, I go

up from my 10 grams to more like 20

grams. Today, for example, I wasn't

really sleepdeprived, but you know,

there's a lot of high cognitive demand.

This is a long podcast. There's all that

stuff. And so, I went up to 20 grams

today on my creatine. And I well, I will

say even at the 10 gram for me, we were

talking about this with respect to being

in ketosis.

I don't feel that mid-after afternoon

crash when I have the creatine, not

being on a ketogenic diet, not being in

ketosis. It's very clear for me and I've

done this where sometimes I only do five

grams and then if I do that I'll notice

I'm like why am I tired right now? So

there's something interesting and maybe

it's placebo. I'm going to throw that

out there. Very possible. But I don't

know maybe the creatine is again it's

able to regenerate that energy quicker

and so that's also beneficial for the

brain. And now I I would say all these

creatine researchers a lot of them are

shifting to the brain. It used to be all

muscle focused and now people are super

interested in what creatine is doing to

the brain, especially if you're

supplementing with more of it. And you

know, this is important for people that

are under a stressful situation, but

also for vegans because creatine is

found in food, mostly in animal products

like meat and poultry and fish, dairy. A

lot of vegans don't eat that. And I've

had so many of my vegan friends,

I've got them on the creatine, and it's

changed their lives. I mean, they're

like, "This is like incredible." You

know, can you imagine someone who's not

getting any creatine from their diet cuz

they eat no meat and all of a sudden

they start supplementing with 5 10 grams

of creatine and it's like they have

energy. Some people say they they

require less sleep, which is kind of

interesting. That's kind of a comment

I've heard many many times from people

is that it's like their brain doesn't

need as much sleep. They have more

energy. So, um, I've been a big fan of

the creatine, um, not only for the

muscle especially because, you know,

working out is something that's very

important, but for the brain as well.

I always thought of creatine as

something that you you took and you kind

of had to load up on and then over a

couple of weeks or months, the effects

would kick in. But you're telling me

that if I had creatine in the morning,

that same day, I would experience

potentially improved cognition if I have

a big enough dose.

>> Yes. So, um, great question. A lot of

studies that have been done that you're

referring to have been done in the

context of exercise and muscular

performance. And the reason why people

have to load up on like they do a

loading phase, let's say 20 grams and

then they go down to this sort of

maintenance phase of 5 g is because it

takes I don't know, I think it's about a

month or so before you can saturate your

muscular stores of creatine. And then

>> what does that mean? It means that um

the creatine which is actually stored in

your muscle as phosphocreatine is there

and ready to be used to make energy. So

so it takes again it takes about a month

or so to do that unless you are really

giving your muscles a high dose, right?

So the five grams a day it only it can

only do it for so many days and then

finally you get saturated. When you do

this loading phase you kind of just

accelerate that whole process. And so

that's why when people are doing these

experiments where they want to test the

effects of creatine, they want they want

the participants to have really high

levels of creatine in their muscles

quick because they don't want to do a

month-long experiment, right? They want

the experiment to be like a couple of

weeks or a week. So that was kind of the

whole concept behind this loading phase.

If you're not someone who's going to

some kind of competition, you know, like

your CrossFit games or something, you

don't really need to do that loading

phase if you've already been

supplementing with five grams a day for

like a month. When it comes to the

brain, what's happening if you get above

that 5 g, that's pretty much all

consumed by the muscle. You're having

some leftover in circulation and the

brain takes it up and it takes it up,

right? When it re what it really shines

is under that stressful condition, which

again for me, I feel like every day is

this is is like cognitively demanding

for me because I'm constantly, you know,

learning new material or learning new

information or working on things, right?

And so there's a lot of cognitive stress

on my brain. And so I feel like I'm

constantly under that stress. And that's

where getting the creatine in your brain

helps you make that energy quicker. And

so that's why like I've done I've had,

you know, been jetlagged and have have

to give a talk at you, you know, like

5:00 a.m. in the morning, my my

biological time after not getting sleep.

And I've done like 25 grams of creatine.

And it it's insane how much it helps me.

Again, it could be placebo because I'm

anticipating that effect, which is fine.

Placebo is a real thing. It's great. I'm

all about it. But there's some evidence

also that this works, right? That the

creatine is helping with under that

sleep deprivation and that stressful

condition.

>> I was reading about a study in 2025

where they

gave creatine to people that had

depressive symptoms alongside CBT

training. And the people that had

creatine and the cognitive behavioral

therapy training experienced a greater

improvement in their depression symptoms

than those who just received the

cognitive behavioral therapy, which is

which is incredible.

>> It's fascinating. I mean, depression is

a type of brain stress, right? I mean,

we know inflammation plays a role in in

depression. We know oxidative stress

plays a role in depression. And there

have now been some animal studies that

have shown creatine is somehow having an

anti-inflammatory effect. I that hasn't

all been worked out. So I don't know if

it's all just the energy component of

it. It could also be this other sort of

newly identified role that creatine is

playing in sort of having an

anti-inflammatory effect. And I don't

know much enough about that. I don't

know that there's enough even known

about that. But I do know that it

exists. And it's fascinating because

again I think where creatine really

shines in the brain and it's been shown

study after study is under some kind of

stressful condition depression or sleep

deprivation or there's a new study that

came out it was published I don't know a

month ago or so showing that it was a

very small pilot study and I want to

caveat this there was no placebo control

but it did show that giving people with

Alzheimer's disease creatine I believe

it was 20 grams a day did improve their

cognition. And so again, this is a whole

new field where now we're looking at

creatine in the brain, not just the gym

bro Bros and not just the muscular

effects, but in the brain and how it's

affecting the brain and being beneficial

for cognition, for brain aging, for

depression.

>> Here's the fourth most replayed moment.

One of the most inspiring and I think

liberating things that I've heard in

your work is this idea of

neuroplasticity. Because if you're if

the brain can physiologically change

based on what I'm doing, then it means

that who I am now, my identity, that 16

that 19-year-old who's sleeping in the

mummy thing with the ferret isn't who I

always have to be. I can literally

change. Um, we've spoken a little bit

around like what causes the motivation

to actually change, but knowing that

there's a my brain will actually change.

Those two things are really inspiring

for me because it means that whatever

rut I'm stuck in isn't necessarily a

permanent one. Now, you said that the

motivation to change comes from fear.

>> Well, in my case, it took a a fear

circumstance, fear of becoming a

permanent failure.

>> Yeah.

>> To motivate immense change. And um uh

that was that circumstance. I I do

believe however that the best work, our

most creative and best work comes from a

love of craft. But sometimes in order to

find what you truly love, you have to be

scared into setting off on a path to

find it. So neuroplasticity

is absolutely real. But if the question

is can a person change, can you learn

new things? Can you unlearn certain

patterns? Can you overcome traumas at

any age? The answer is absolutely

categorically yes. How? Well, it's very

clear that as a child until about age

25, more or less just passive experience

will shape the brain for better or

worse. After about age 25, and again

these are not strict cut offs,

we can change our brain. But what's

required is a marketked shift in the

neurochemical environment under which

something happens. So one of the reasons

why any traumatic event will forever be

remembered although by the way you can

remove some of the emotional load of

that trauma does not have to be

traumatic forever

is because when we see or experience

something very intense of a fearful

nature there is the release of certain

what we call neurom modulators things

like epinephrine adrenaline and other

neurom modulators that cause a state

shift in our broad body and brain And

the nervous system recognizes this as

unusual and as a consequence in the

subsequent days there's reordering of

the connections so that the brain can

prepare for that event should it happen

again. This is why we have what's called

one trial learning. You go to a certain

location, something terrible happens

there, you will forever associate that

location with something terrible. But

there are tools, therapy and other tools

that can allow the emotional load to be

removed from that so that you could go

to that location and feel calm, no fear

whatsoever. The good news is you can

also learn anything you want to learn

provided there's a shift in this

neurochemical environment. This is why

when we are very interested and focused

on something, two of the main

requirements for neuroplasticity, we

have to be alert and we have to be

focused. We can't learn passively as

adults. We can't just play um you know a

a lecture about AI and large language

models or neuroscience in the room and

then it just the knowledge doesn't just

sink in by osmosis.

But if we pay attention and we're alert

when we pay attention

there's a shift in the neurochemicals

associated with that attention. What we

call the catacolamines. It's three

molecules dopamine, epinephrine and

norepinephrine. All which cause an

increase in alertness. all which cause

an increase in focus, a tightening of

our visual field and our auditory field.

So like cones of attention is one way to

think about it. And then it sets in

motion a bunch of biological processes

such that if we get adequate sleep that

night, maybe the next night as well,

there's reordering of neural connection

so that that knowledge, that new

experience is consolidated in your

brain. You are forever changed as a

consequence of that experience. So when

we hear that the brain is constantly

changing, everything that we encounter

changes our brain, that's not true. Why

would the brain change unless it needed

to, right? As a child, the brain is

basically a template for change. It's

it's trying to understand the

environment and make predictions. And so

that's true. Neuroplasticity is is a

cardinal feature of of childhood and

adolescence and the teen years. Just

think about the music you listen to when

you were a teen. No other music will

ever have as much significance. And

that's because as a teen your body is

flooded with hormones and neurom

modulators that the amount of meaning

that comes from now seemingly trivial

events when you're a teenager or

adolescent is immense. That song meant

so much and it's because of the

neurochemical meu it creates in you. But

as an adult it takes a stronger stimulus

as we say. The nervous system is very um

efficient in that way. It doesn't change

unless it has to and it always changes

if it needs to in order to keep you

safe. This is why there's an asymmetric

influence of fear as opposed to um just

interest in terms of what will shift our

brain. But it's nice to know that love

and excitement and appreciation are very

strong stimula for changing the brain.

From everything we know about

neuroscience, it's clear that doesn't

matter if you're 90 years old, 70 years

old, 50 years old, if you want to learn,

you can learn. And that learning occurs

through neuroplasticity, which is the

reordering of neural connections,

strengthening of certain connections,

weakening of others, and in some rare

cases, the addition of new neurons. But

you absolutely can change your brain,

but you have to pay attention to the

thing you want to incorporate into your

brain. You have to be alert while you do

that. And then you absolutely have to go

get some rest because it's during sleep

and during meditative states and during

rest that the actual rewiring of the

brain occurs.

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Here is the third most replayed moment.

For those people who have just clicked

to listen to this conversation, can you

tell them the mission you're on and why

it's so important?

>> Yeah. Well, thanks so much for having

this conversation with me. I think that

illustrates the problem, right? someone

as informed as you don't know anything

or never heard of nitric oxide. So,

>> it's important for us to just make a

distinction between um like nitric gas

that people, you know, inhale and that

used if you played like uh some of those

racing car games, you press a button and

the car goes really fast. If you

>> That's nitrous nitrous.

>> These are two separate things.

>> No, very Yeah, very good point. So, this

is not nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide is I

mean a medicine is a dental anesthetic,

right? It's a gas. It's called laughing

gas. That's N2O. That's the chemical

formula. What we're talking about is

nitric oxide or NO. One nitrogen, one

oxygen. This molecule is is foundational

for human health and longevity. So

nitric oxide is a gas. It's a naturally

produced molecule. It's a signaling

molecule in the human body. And so it's

it regulates things like blood flow and

oxygen delivery. And it mobilizes our

own stem cells to help us recover and

repair and replace dysfunctional cells.

it uh improves energy production inside

the cell and it regulates blood flow. So

nitric oxide is a gas. It's produced in

the endthelium. So the endothelium is

the single layer of cells that line

every blood vessel throughout the body.

So the function of these endothelial

cells is to regulate vascular tone and

to regulate you know solute exchange and

extravisation or transport of molecules

across that endothelial layer. And so

when your endthelial cells can no longer

make nitric oxide gas, they no longer

dilate. So the blood vessels become

constricted. You start to get

inflammation. You get stiff arteries,

plaque deposition, and that's what

starts cardiovascular disease

orthoscerosis.

>> So let me get this straight. I'll repeat

back to you what I think I understand

about nitric oxide. And you tell me if

it's accurate. So this nitric oxide is a

chemical that is in all the blood cells

of my body and it allows my blood cells

to basically expand open up so blood can

flow through there. So if I

>> it dilates it dilates the smooth muscle.

So it's not affecting

>> the cells per se but it's dilating the

smooth muscle that surrounds the blood

vessels which leads to re relaxation and

dilation.

>> Fine. So my blood cells would then

expand

>> your blood vessels

>> and more blood would go through there.

But if I'm deficient, that mechanism

doesn't work and my blood cells wouldn't

expand ultimately expand through the

relaxation of the muscles.

>> That's right.

>> And therefore, I would have higher blood

pressure, which can lead to a series of

downstream diseases and consequences.

And so when we look at the graph that I

showed a second ago where we're seeing

for anyone that can't see this graph

because you're listening on audio, we're

seeing

nitric oxide levels in young people up

to the age of roughly around 20 are

optimal. And then from about 30 to 70,

there's this tremendous sort of 80 90%

drop. in terms of chronic disease that

is downstream from me losing nitric

oxide level. Can you give me a bit of a

menu of chronic disease that is

associated with this nitric oxide

deficiency?

>> Yep.

We've touched on them. So erectile

dysfunction. So in erections in both men

and women are dependent upon dilation of

the blood vessels to get engorgment to

get increase in blood flow. And that's

what an erection is. And we call that

the canary in the coal mine because for

years people thought it was a lifestyle

disorder. Right.

>> Well, erectile dysfunction.

>> Yeah. But now it's recognized that it's

a symptom of loss of nitric oxide and

really an accelerated form of

cardiovascular disease,

>> high blood pressure, metabolic disease,

and diabetes. And then the other one is

uh obviously Alzheimer's because

Alzheimer's is a vascular disease. And

nitric oxide corrects every single thing

we know about Alzheimer's. It improves

blood flow to the brain. It improves

glucose uptake. So, it overcomes the

metabolic aspect of Alzheimer's. It

reduces inflammation. In fact, a number

of my patents on a method of reducing

inflammation. It inhibits the oxidative

stress we see in in Alzheimer's and

neurological disease. And it prevents

the immune dysfunction. And when you do

that, when you restore blood flow and

you get nutrients and oxygen in and you

take out the metabolic waste products,

there's no misfolding of protein. So,

you don't get the amaloid plaque, you

don't get the tangles. So this simple

molecule nitric oxide gas I'm absolutely

convinced will eradicate and cure

Alzheimer's

>> really

>> because it it addresses every

physiological root cause of Alzheimer's

>> if you can get it administered

therapeutically to patients early enough

or

>> no I think that's a very key because the

success or failure of any clinical trial

any drug in any clinical trial is

dependent upon the design of the

clinical trial and what patients at what

stage of disease that you enroll these

patients. So what are the inclusion

criteria and what are the exclusion

criteria

and there's a stage in every disease

whether it's heart disease, kidney

disease, Alzheimer's where you've

reached a point of no return. There's

really no medical therapy that's going

to reverse that disease because it's

progressed to a state that's

irreversible. So I think what we try to

do is take

take patients early in the process what

we call vascular dementia mild cognitive

impairment early Alzheimer's because

what I want to be able to demonstrate is

two things number one can we stop the

progression of disease once it's started

can we stop the progression and then

number two is we want to enroll patients

far enough along to where we can show

regression so can you move can you move

the needle back and so That's a very

kind of a specific and finite patient

population. When you design a clinical

study, number one, at the at the

absolute worst, we want to stop

progression. At the absolute best, we

want to show that we can regress

disease. And that's the goal of therapy

is that you understand the mechanism of

disease to the extent that you can treat

it, you can prevent it, you can reverse

it, and you can cure it. When I think

about the role that food plays in my

nitric oxide production, what should I

be eating to increase um my nitric oxide

levels or to keep them at a healthy

level?

>> I think it the same answer is for that

too. It's it's not so much what we

should be eating, it's what we should

not be eating.

>> Okay,

>> so we we'll we'll cover those step by

step. Number one, you have to avoid

sugar and high glycemic index foods

because sugar is a toxin. It's a poison.

And let's think about what sugar is. So

when we eat sugar or drink sugar

beverages, right? Whether it's sucrose,

whether it's fructose, whether it's high

fructose corn syrup, the end result

inside the human is we see an increase

in glucose. So elevation in blood sugar

or blood glucose is diabetes, right? And

now there's continuous glucose monitors

that you can get anywhere and everybody

does this. So if you eat something and

it causes an increase in your blood

sugar, blood glucose, then you should

avoid that because glucose as the name

implies is glue, right? It's sticky. And

if we if you have a soda and you spill

it on your countertop, you come back the

next day, it's sticky, right? Well,

that's what happens inside the body.

That sugar sticks to everything. It

sticks to proteins. It sticks to

enzymes.

>> And it lowers nitric oxide production.

>> Absolutely. That's why diabetics have a

10 times higher incidence of heart

attack, stroke, all cause mortality

mortality. That's why they develop neur

neurological or peripheral neuropathy.

That's why they have non-healing wounds.

There's no nitric oxide. That's why

they're developing diabetic retinopathy,

macular degeneration, pancreatitis. I

mean, all of that can be traced back to

a lack of nitric oxide production

because the sugar is stuck to the

enzyme. The sugar destroys the oral

microbiome and completely changes the

the ecology of the bacteria and

completely shuts down nitric oxide

production. Right? But I think to answer

your question, what should we be eating?

I think you've got to eat a balanced

diet in moderation. You know, Americans

are overfed. All you got to do is walk

around and see the the epidemic of

obesity. good high quality protein, good

quality fats, and little or no carbs.

And it's really that simple.

>> Here's the second most replayed moment.

When you think about behaviors and

habits that are popular and trendy at

the moment, are there any that stand out

to you as being particularly good for

the brain or particularly bad for the

brain? Cuz I had a couple come to mind

that I wanted to throw at you. I mean,

one of them that's exploding in the UK

at the moment is paddle, which is kind

of I think you call it pickle ball here.

Good for my brain, bad for my brain.

It's so good for your brain because

it's working your cerebellum. And I told

you that because yours was sleepy

and as you activate this and you do that

with coordination exercises, it then

activates your frontal loes. Does that

mean that people that are uncoordinated

have a cerebellum issue?

>> Yes.

>> Oh, really?

>> Okay.

>> And the more you do it, the better

coordination you develop.

>> And that's why coordination exercises

for kids. So, we talked about kids is

you want to do that with them early.

Play sports, but not sports where

they're going to get a head injury,

right? I mean, we have to be smarter

than we are. Um, but when I was young,

my mother, who's now 93, was the

pingpong champion in the neighborhood,

and she was really good, and she never

let us beat her until we could

>> and but she was always encouraging.

I've got um I was looking then as you

were speaking about different trends at

the moment that are either good or bad

for the brain and one big trend at the

moment is neuroplasticity training. Lots

of people are doing games and using

other things to like there's apps you

can get that are neuroplasticity

training apps. Does any of that stuff

work?

>> Some of it

>> some of it works. And if you're so for

example, if you're doing memorization

games, do them while you're on the bike.

Now, not in the street, but if you're on

a stationary bike and

you're doing those games, it's been

found that exercise

increases blood flow to the hippocampus,

meaning you're more likely to remember

it and you're strengthening your brain

in the process. So, exercise with new

learning,

stunning. So if I want to learn

something, I should do it while walking

or moving in motion,

>> right? So if you're listening to a

language app, for example, do it while

you're walking.

>> Mindfulness and meditation, good or bad

for the brain.

>> Great. I published three studies on a

condundolini yoga form of meditation

called kin crea. It's a 12minute

meditation. I always say it's the

perfect ADD meditation because it's only

12 minutes. And for 12 minutes you do

this. Sa

m saw

saw.

It's two minutes out loud, two minutes

whispering, four minutes silently to

yourself.

2 minutes whispering, 2 minutes out

loud, you're done. Satan ma, birth,

life, death, reborn. Birth, life, death,

reborn. But the one we studied is sat na

ma. And so if they look it up, kitin

crea um activates your cerebellum,

activates your frontal loes, calms down

your emotional brain. People who did

that for 12 minutes for 8 weeks, their

resting frontal lobe function was

stronger.

So simple.

>> What the hell is going on there?

I think it's the focused attention plus

you're doing a coordination meditation s

no s

>> loving your job good or bad for the

brain

>> absolutely great for your brain if

you're learning new things people who

are in a job that does not require new

learning have a higher incidence of

Alzheimer's disease So if you're

stagnant in your work, you have a higher

risk of

>> Alzheimer's. And like if I just read

brain scans all day, well, I know how to

do it. I'm not learning anything new.

So I do that,

but I also am writing about something I

don't know about. Um, or I'm learning

something new.

>> What if you're working with

>> I'm sorry.

>> I love the job, but I'm working with

>> Bad for your brain. Chronic stress

increases cortisol. And I think

everybody should sort of know their

baseline cortisol level

and cortisol shrinks the hippocampus

and puts fat on your belly. So that's

two very bad things for your brain.

>> Breath work. That's a big trap.

>> Excellent. Excellent. You want to break

a panic attack?

The 15-second breath. 4 seconds in, hold

it for a second and a half. Eight

seconds out, hold it for a second and a

half. You just do that four or five

times, your whole nervous system will

calm down. And the research shows take

twice as long to breathe out as you

breathe in. That's why 4 seconds in, 8

seconds out.

>> It shifts your nervous system, doesn't

it?

>> Yes. It increases something called

veagal tone.

>> Okay. Some bad things then. Social media

usage. Chronic social media usage. Good

for the brain, bad for the brain.

>> Because you're constantly comparing

yourself to people who aren't real.

>> What about workcoholism and hustle

culture?

>> So,

I love my work.

Am I addicted to it? I don't know. But I

love it.

When they say people are workaholics and

it's bad for the brain, it's they're

working

with

or doing something they don't like or

doing it for the money but without

other purpose.

>> Microplastics, that's a big

>> awful for the brain. One of the major

causes of hormone disruption and cancer.

and other environment.

>> Thank you for not giving me a plastic

water bottle. Yeah,

>> it's okay. Imagine imagine if we did

that when we spend a long a lot of time

these days talking about the

microplastics and other environmental

toxins that I think people are becoming

more aware of now which is good noise

pollution

bad for the brain and if if it hurts

your hearing hearing loss is actually

one of the risk factors for Alzheimer's.

Why is that? I did a I did a

>> Because you're not getting input, right?

>> And if you're not getting appropriate

input,

your brain starts to atrophy.

And if you don't hear what other people

are saying and you have a lot of ants,

you have a high negativity bias is you

can actually begin to get a bit paranoid

and fill in the empty spaces with

negativity.

I just bought some new Apple AirPods and

when I connected them to my phone, it

said, "You want to do a hearing test?"

So, I did the hearing test and then I

asked my girlfriend, I said, "You should

do this hearing test as well." Cuz I

needed something to compare it to. And I

was a little bit shocked. Um, it said I

hadn't lost any hearing yet, but my

hearing was significantly not as good as

hers. And I remember thinking, gosh,

you know, this is, but I didn't have any

idea that it was linked to Alzheimer's

at all. So now I've turned down the

volume for the first time in my life

because I think your hearing declines

regardless really of what you do with

age anyway. Um but as you said earlier

like starting from a better baseline

when you're talking about the brain

reserves is really the game I think with

aging. My last point is uh my last

question is a bit of a

seems to be uncorrelated but the world

is heading towards a world that's driven

by artificial intelligence. It's like

all the all the rage at the moment if

you log on the internet. People talking

about they're going to lose their jobs.

All of these new tools that allow us to

optimize our lives in a variety of

different ways. When you think about the

world of AI that we're heading into,

there's so many ways that I imagine it's

going to make your job easier as someone

who's doing scans of brains and so on.

But do you think artificial intelligence

is going to be good or bad for our

brains?

I think in the short run it's going to

be bad because

your brain is going to do less and

that's bad for the brain. I I think it's

fascinating to watch what's going to

happen. And ultimately, in the words of

my friend Byron Katy, argue with

reality, welcome to hell.

We need to figure out how to use it to

enhance our lives rather than to steal

brain development.

>> Here's the first most replayed moment.

There was a study done in 2007 that

showed Can't even say it.

>> Curcumin.

>> That shows curcumin upregulates anti-

oxidant defenses and downregulates

oxidative stress.

>> Yeah. There was a study done in 2016

which is a meta analysis of random

control trials found curcuminium

comparable to ibuprofen in terms of pain

relief.

>> Yeah, there there's a lot of work on

kurcamin and turmeric. As I said, a lot

of people get confused because they

think the it only works if you absorb it

into the blood and I'm saying that

actually you don't. What you do is you

work with the microbiome to make it

useful. And there's early preclinical

studies taking place around the impact

it can have with cancers. And there's

promising but early studies showing the

impact that curcumin that comes from

turmeric can have on brain health.

>> Yes. Well, that's uh focus is switching

on to the blood supply to the brain.

What we call the vascular effects on the

brain. And there's something that we

used to call the blood brain barrier

which you've probably heard of which is

seen to be the place where the barrier

that stops a lot of stuff entering the

brain and potentially upsetting it. We

now know this bloodb brain barrier is a

very dynamic interesting interface

between the brains tissue and the rest

of us. It's now called the

neurovvascular unit, NVU.

And it is so exciting. And the more we

look at it so far, the more we find that

the things that help the neurovvascular

unit, the bloodb brain barrier are

plants. And we have green tea. And you

know we can if you if you really want to

help um our brain health regular

drinking of green tea you know

is has been shown to be really useful.

Not that rather than the supplement by

the way is the drink that you have um oh

I put it in here right so we can make

it.

So as you make that can you explain to

me why green tea is a good idea

>> because it contains a number of again

polyphenols

>> and polyphenols are those

>> are these colors

>> these colors yeah

>> in this case it's green obviously and me

green tea is just the smoked unprocessed

part of the tea leaf so it's a plant

called chameleia senses um

so this is nice Japanese teapot. That's

the sort of thing you'd have green tea

in. And these are the mugs, but we've

filled these up already with uh ginger

and cinnamon. So, let's let's leave it

for a moment, but we can while it's

sitting there for a while. There are a

number of these polyphenols in green tea

that seem to be particularly

effective in modulating that barrier. We

talked about the neurovvascular unit

between the brain and the rest of us.

And um there's all sorts of reasons why

regular consumption of green tea seems

to be linked to less of this sort of

trouble.

>> What what sort of trouble?

>> The dementia type problems, the

cognitive decline as they get older.

>> Do they find that in cultures where they

drink a lot of green tea, they have less

dementia?

>> Yeah. But that doesn't mean there's a

cause and effect. So you need a few

other things to establish that. What

we're finding is that other plants have

very likely powerful effects in this

area. And I mentioned the rosemary. Now

all you need to do to appreciate

rosemary is to press it and sniff.

>> Oh, it smells so good. Really nice.

>> That's not just nice because what you're

doing there is you're inhaling volatile

oils,

>> the things that give the smell.

>> And when you're inhaling,

they're literally going into your brain

because part of the brain actually

reaches the outside world. It's called

the alactory lobe. And when you inhale

something, it literally moves into the

brain and from there into the lyic

system. Remember there's a line in a

Shakespeare play called Hamlet Ailia

the young lady says rosemary that's for

remembrance

>> because everyone knew that this improved

cognitive functions and when I was in

working on our campus in Maryland we

actually did a clinical trial with

rosemary in people with struggling with

their crosswords you know as they get

older and found that although it wasn't

a conclusive study there were pointers

to it's improving cognitive or

performance in those people and there's

been other studies since that re that

reinforce that. I would say that

rosemary is one of the ones to watch in

terms of long-term brain health. There's

another remedy called GKO that a lot of

people know about which is used as a

prescription medicine in Europe uh for

cardiovascular problems and that's been

shown to be likely useful and using the

same sort of mechanisms as as we've seen

here and with the green tea. I'll check

it here. Yeah, that looks all right.

You see, it's more yellow than green,

but uh

and this is flavored with a little bit

of mint to make it a little more

agreeable. Sometimes people find green

tea is not their favorite taste. Green

tea is rich in polyphenols, um which are

linked to benefits ranging from heart

and brain health to fat loss and cancer

prevention.

>> It's got a nice minty flavor.

>> Yeah.

>> You can live with that, couldn't you?

>> Yeah. Yeah,

>> my girlfriend again, she she's all over

this stuff. She's always bloody right.

>> Well, you know that learned that lesson

a long time ago.

>> I know, right? Like I say it all the

time on this podcast, but she's always

like 2, three years ahead of what then

someone really, really smart comes and

tells me and I spend those two or three

years in denial. I'm like, what the

is she like doing over there? Don't get

me started on cacao. If you start

talking to me about cacao, no, no, no,

no, no. She's been telling me

>> I'm gonna I'm gonna nail this because

there's a lot of people listening who

will want to hear this.

>> Okay,

>> Coco. Yeah,

>> chocolate, dark chocolate is a medicine.

End of

one of the best medicines around is 50 g

or 100 g of 75% or more dark chocolate.

Do you know what I've just realized? My

girlfriend, she's going to live till

she's 150 because she all she eats 90%

or something 80% dark chocolate. She

drinks green tea all day. She has

the ginger and cinnamon drinks all day.

She eats the the full rainbow.

>> She should be stepping in for you.

>> I know. I I know. Exactly.

>> No, Coco. Seriously,

brain health as well,

>> cardiovascular health.

>> I mean, they just they do studies where

they've put coco into volunteers. That

means students usually um you know so

young kids and they were able to show

changes in the blood flow within minutes

certainly within an hour of eating cocoa

>> beneficial changes in your blood flow.

>> They call it the heart medicine.

>> Yeah. No heart circulation brain.

>> So she's um my girlfriend's very

spiritual. She runs a business called

Bali Breathwork. Um #ad if I have to say

that. But in her business, one of the

things she does at the very start of the

session with women all over the world

that come to her retreats is she makes

cacao for them. And

you notice instantly how people change

when they've had a hot cup of cacao.

It's and and she says it like almost

brings out their heart. And I guess

that's because of the circulation

reasons. Yes,

>> it is. But it also of course we know it

contains a few other beneficial

stimulate stimulating effects sort of

similar to the effects with coffee which

in certainly as I've already said is a

medicine as well. Uh but cocoa and

chocolate does have a uplifting effect

which is why we love it. So

>> and we have to be clear here we're not

talking about hot chocolate that comes

from a packet or something necessarily.

>> We would like it to be as dark as

possible.

>> Okay. Sorry,

>> the less sugar, the less fat. Um, so we

talk about 75% cocoa solids, you know,

so it's dark chocolate and it tastes a

bit more medicinal, doesn't it? It's not

as sweet. Um, but I'm saying to many of

my patients, take 50 g a day. It's a

medicine.

>> Damn, she's right. My fridge is full of

dark chocolate. I tend to avoid it, but

the drawer of my fridge has all of her

dark chocolate in, and it's she she

likes it 90%. If she can get a 90%

she'll take it.

>> Yeah. 90% is quite good now.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

>> Having a look at the green tea.

There was a study done in 2008 which

supports how it improved cognitive

function, memory, attention accuracy and

um long-term consumption associated with

lower risk of cognitive decline and

Alzheimer's disease according to the

Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry in

2011.

It's nice to have somebody else just say

what you said.

>> Yeah, but it's it's ex exactly. I didn't

realize that. I didn't I had no idea.

I had no idea.

All those times I turned it down when

she offered it to me.

>> You can't say sorry.

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